Rome

Rome
(Rohm)

The capital and by far the largest city of the Roman Empire. It appears that the Christian faith entered the city in the 40's CE through Jewish Christians who joined one or several Jewish synagogues in town. By preaching about Christ, they stirred up turmoil within the synagogues so that the attention of Roman officials was attracted. The key persons in this inner-Jewish argument were apparently expelled by Claudius’s administration in CE 49. Among them were Aquila and Prisca/Priscilla (Acts 18:2). Following this disruption, the Christians appear to have assembled on their own. At the latest, Christianity in Rome was separated from the Jewish synagogues at the time of Paul’s Letter to the Romans in the second half of the 50s CE. The majority of Roman Christians now were gentile, although many of these Gentiles may, before their baptism, have been loosely connected with Jewish synagogues as sympathizers with Jewish monotheism. By 64 CE, even Nero could distinguish the Christians from the Jews in the city. The book of Acts relates that Paul was taken to Rome as a prisoner and held there for two years under house arrest (Acts 28:16; Acts 28:30). Later tradition holds that both Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom in Rome—perhaps in connection with Nero’s massacre in 64 CE. Both 1 Peter and Revelation refer to Rome as “Babylon” (1Pet 5:13; Rev 14:8; Rev 16:19; Rev 17:5; Rev 18:2; Rev 18:10; Rev 18:21). The latter book pictures Rome as a great harlot drunk with the blood of martyrs (Rev 17).

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